This invention relates to a milk-claw provided with inspection means for the milk sucked from cow's teats which are capable of inspecting whether the cow is infected by mastitis or not and if so, its degree in the course of milking.
Generally speaking, mastitis is publicly known as a disease which is most prevalent in cows. And, it is said that mastitis occupies 25% and a fraction of the total sickness, wound and accidents that cows sustain. This mastitis not only lowers the quality of milk but also reduces the output of milk, and further brings about a big economic loss such as disuse of the milk.
In view of this, there is an eager demand for an early discovery of said mastitis. For the purpose of meeting this demand there is proposed a way of detecting mastitis by measuring the electric conductivity of milk. The principle upon which this method is based is that when a cow is infected by mastitis the sodium chloride content of the milk increases and thus the electric conductivity of the milk increases. This method is surely advantageous in that it does not need an especially high level of experties and therefore any one can make said measurement with ease, but is disadvantageous in that it takes a long period of inspection time because of the inevitable necessity of sampling the milk sucked from each teat and inspecting it, respectively, and further that it is impossible to make a continuous inspection throughout the milking operation for discovering abnormality without a moment's delay.
In this situation, there has usually been an earnest desire for the advent of an inspection apparatus capable of achieving the inspection without taking a long period of time as described above and further discovering abnormality quickly in the manner of measuring the electric conductivity of the milk sucked from each teat continuously throughout the milking operation, omitting the above-mentioned troublesome sampling. In order to meet this ardent desire, Japanese Utility Model application 97033/1978 has proposed an inspection apparatus.
As is shown in FIG. 1, this apparatus is one for feeding the milk from teat cups 1a, 1b, 1c and 1d attached to cow's four teats through milk feeding pipes 2a, 2b, 2c and 2d having traps 3a, 3b, 3c and 3d respectively and further a transfer pipe 5 to a milker, wherein a pair of electrodes are installed in each of traps 3a, 3b, 3c and 3d for measuring the electric conductivity of the milk by means of an electric conductivity measuring apparatus 6. An electric conductivity measurement is made on the milk drawn from each of the cow's four teats, individually, and since milk showing a high electric conductivity value indicates the presence of mastitis and the degree of infection, the individual teat infected can be identified.
However, this apparatus is defective in that the milking operation is effected by vacuum suction but the milk sucked from teats is discharged intermittently. Therefore, the said milk does not flow through milk feeding pipes 2a, 2b, 2c and 2d at a fixed rate continuously, and consequently air bubbles are sometimes mingled with the milk within traps 3a, 3b, 3c and 3d. And, since due to these bubbles the milk is prevented from contacting the electrodes and further the milk once within the traps is liable to stagnate therewithin and is difficult to exchange it with a fresh milk, it is impossible to measure the electric conductivity thereof correctly and consequently correct inspection of the milk is also impossible.
To cope with this, it may be contemplated to provide each of traps 3a, 3b, 3c and 3d with an apparatus for overcoming the above defect. But, this contemplation is defective in that much trouble and expenses are required therefor.